


Record

by mayoho



Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: Gen, extremely oblique reference to canonical rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 14:28:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14620635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayoho/pseuds/mayoho
Summary: Four years after his disappearance, Cooper has left marks in the in the FBI headquarters.





	Record

Albert has to collect his coat and briefcase from the office he shares with Deputy Director Gordon Cole. It is late; he regrets, for a short moment, not storing his things in one of the lockers near the labs, but he would be loathed to give up the excuse to eavesdrop on Gordon’s phone calls every morning. Suddenly, his heart is pounding. The Philadelphia branch of the FBI usually feels like home even when it is dark and deserted. He is the resident skeptic of the Blue Rose task force, but he knows--more often than not--intuition is just your mind responding to stimuli before you’ve consciously processed it, so he stops. There it is, that door he just passed--but it couldn’t be...

He lets out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding when he hears the tick, whizz, click of a dictaphone rewinding. He doesn’t know if he’s disappointed or relieved. 

“--is not as bad as I had always thought it might be, as long as you can manage to keep the fear from your mind. But--” Tick, whizz, click. He can hear the slightly distorted voice of Special Agent Dale Cooper, four years missing at this point. The light is on and the door cracked open. Albert nudges it further with his foot. He can see Diane, back to the door, lines of her body hunched and harsh in the overhead light. 

“--the Lindbergh kidnapping case. I would very much like to make love to a beautiful woman who I had genuine affection for. And of course I would have liked to visit Tibet—”

“Diane.” Albert’s voice catches. He feels like he’s intruded on something intimate even though Cooper’s tapes are part of the official record. 

Diane turns with none of her usual grace. She’s radiating fury. That’s not at all unusual, especially in the years since Cooper had performed his vanishing act. But her eyeliner and lipstick are smudged and he can see the faintest hint of a finger shaped bruise on her wrist where the sleeve of her coat had slipped down as she held the dictaphone. She makes no move to rearrange her coat, but her eyes, when they meet his, are enough of a warning for Albert to keep his mouth shut. 

“Fuck you, Albert,” Diane says preemptively. He holds up his hands.

Diane ejects the microcassette from the recorder. Her movements are swift and contain enough misdirection that Albert can pretend not to see the cassette slip into her purse, but she is seriously off her game. He remembers slow days at the office--Cooper teaching Diane magic tricks to brush up on his sleight of hand skills only a few feet from where they are standing now. He had requested, on occasion, that Albert join them--it was better than playing Gordon’s word association games. He startles as Diane pushes past him through the doorway, clutching her coat tight around her neck against an imagined draft. 

The next morning, Diane is standing in front of Gordon’s desk, chin held at a defiant angle, when Albert walks into the office to drop his coat. A plain white envelope sits unopened at the center of Gordon’s desk--it doesn’t need to be opened, they all know exactly what is inside. Albert doesn’t know how long Diane and Gordon have been standing like this, sizing each other up or engaging in some strange telepathic communication, but his presence breaks the moment. Diane turns on her heel, stalking out the door. Albert thinks there are tears in her eyes, but he’ll never be sure. 

“Pack your things, Diane. There’s no need for you to come back.” Gordon shouts after her.

Albert will replay this moment in his mind, more than twenty years later, and wonder if he should have followed her.

**Author's Note:**

> Technically, this Diane is a tulpa, but she doesn't know that. One of the many curious things about Twin Peaks is the, I think deliberate, inconsistencies in what the people who have interacted with Lodge magic know when. When does Diane know she's helping Mr C? Is she deliberately working against Gordon, Albert, and Tammy, or does she even know she is doing it? It's very hard to tell. 
> 
> But this is more my very oblique, poorly formed thoughts on whether or not Cooper is really in love with Diane than it is anything else. Certainly Cooper loves Diane, but is that the same thing at all? The things he says with the knowledge that she will listen to them later are just insane and I don't know what that means.


End file.
